• Articles and essays

    What is Your Real Job (Even if it’s Not in Your Job Description)?

    Fred was a part of the original community of grantmakers that eventually became PCP. He is also the Founder of The Gathering, which he led for three decades. He currently serves on the board of the Buford Foundation and the East Texas Medical Foundation where he continues to be active in grantmaking. Yet Fred will tell you his true vocation is that of a Sunday School teacher, and it is this role for which he would most like to be remembered. He is a Navy veteran and a graduate of Denver University and Harvard Divinity School. Fred and his wife Carol live in Tyler, TX and have two grown daughters,…

    Comments Off on What is Your Real Job (Even if it’s Not in Your Job Description)?
  • Bible Studies

    Jeremiah 22-25

    We reached a climax last week. If this were a television show it would have had “to be continued” at the bottom of the screen and we would be waiting for a new episode or new season to find out what happens. Jeremiah has finally pushed the king and the high priest to the limit. He is not just a nuisance. He is a full-fledged traitor. He has encouraged the people of Jerusalem to surrender to the enemy and save their lives instead of fighting to the death for Jerusalem. However, instead of these chapters giving us the next installment of the story, they are something of a flashback. You…

  • Fred's Blog

    Ship Of Fools

    A single line from Wendell Berry’s “Jayber Crow” is a picture of my neighborhood where I grew up. “In Port William only strangers, preachers and traveling salesmen ever went to anybody’s front door.” For us, it was the often left open side door leading into the kitchen – the heart of the house – that was the place we went in and came out. People coming to the front door were those we did not know but people coming to the side were friends, neighbors and family. The side door was for people we trusted. I’ve been turning that over in my mind this week while studying the power of…

  • Bible Studies

    follow me

    Since last week, things have changed dramatically for Judah, Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria. As we know, Judah was reviving economically, politically and spiritually under Josiah. There was a renewed belief in the future of the country. Everyone – except Jeremiah and God – was optimistic. Egypt wanted to join forces with Assyria to attack Babylonia whose rise was a threat to their regional power. To do that, the Pharaoh’s army had to travel through Megiddo which is part of Judah. For some uncertain reasons, Josiah went out to challenge him and was killed by Pharaoh Neco. It could be that Josiah thought his opportunities for expansion were better with a…

  • Fred's Blog

    Just Jesus?

    In the last few years I have been paying closer attention to shifts affecting the American church. It’s too easy for older believers to look at another generation and say, “They’ll come around when they have a few more years of life under their belt,” but the truth is while a number of these changes are welcome, there are some that are fundamental and, honestly, concerning. One is the growing attraction to selected teachings of Jesus and an increased questioning of or even discounting those of the Apostle Paul. For a number of reasons, there is a widening divide between the influence of Jesus and that of Paul among Christians…

  • Bible Studies

    Jeremiah 16-18

    As we said a couple of weeks ago, Jeremiah was given the burden of speaking the truth to Israel at a time they would have been surprised to hear what God had to say. From their perspective, they were in a time of renewal: economic, social, political and spiritual.  They thought of themselves as experiencing good times, finally, and turning the country around. Things were looking up and prophets should have been encouraging them – not calling them to judgment. At first they were quizzical and then angry…but Jeremiah does not change in response to the pressure. Powerful and persuasive people were leaning on Jeremiah to stop because he was…

  • Fred's Blog

    An Impatient Wizard

    I’ve only served on a few boards because I do not consider myself a natural fit for board work. I always half-seriously tell people inviting me that I am not comfortable being part of any group that can vote against my opinion. As well, I am impatient with the necessary but gradual process of change. As I’ve said before, had I been coaching Jesus on his encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, I would have advised him to say, “You are headed in the wrong direction.  Turn around.  Listen to what I am telling you.”  But he doesn’t.  He walks with them in the wrong direction while…

  • Fred's Blog

    Pioneers and Pirates

    When the girls were young, the three of us took road trips over the Father’s Day week-end.  We never made plans.  We just headed out in a direction they chose and stopped when we got somewhere interesting.  One year, we wound up in Natchez, Mississippi.  Forgetting how much I love the history of a place they ended up with me on a double decker bus tour seeing all the grand homes, getting a feel for the history of Natchez and how it developed from a small huddle of tents on a riverbank in the 1700’s to become by 1850 the home of fully half the millionaires in the United States.  …

  • Bible Studies

    Jeremiah 2-6

    This morning we are going to look at three basic things. In these chapters Jeremiah addresses three conditions of the people. The first is God says you are worthless. In the second you are faithless. In the third you are shameless. What does it mean to be worthless from God’s perspective? It is a tragic indictment of people who began with such promise. The word is repeated many times in Scripture to describe what happens when people follow after worthless things. They become worthless themselves. All the weight, the substance and the value has gone away and the people have become hollow. You know what cavitation is? It is part…

  • Fred's Blog

    Feed The Beast

    If you read “Cyrano de Bergerac” in school you may remember the pact between the misshapen poet Cyrano and the dashing young military man, Christian, who were both in love with the same woman, Roxanne. The handsome soldier was incapable of speaking his love as he was tongue-tied and clumsy with words while the ugly poet, Cyrano, was gifted with romantic language. By Christian using the words composed by his comrade standing in the shadows, together they would win the heart of the young maiden. But the result is deceit, confusion and eventual tragedy.  There are good reasons greeting cards are a $19 billion industry assisting those of us who…